


15 Years Later

by fabGabe



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Josh is Sad, Josh' bf is my own fictional character, Josh's boyfriend is a dick, M/M, Music teacher Josh, PE teacher Tyler, Panic Attacks, Physical Abuse, Self-Harm, Sexual Abuse, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-08-13 12:04:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7976170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabGabe/pseuds/fabGabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh starts a new job as a high school music teacher and it just so happens that Tyler, his old friend works in the same school.</p><p>Josh is (has always been) slightly messed up and Tyler wants to help.</p><p>-</p><p>Rating might/probably will change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have a beta, so all mistakes are on me. Also, as English is not my first language, I'd very much like it if you informed me of possible errors!
> 
> Twenty one pilots have beem ruining my life lately and oh do they inspire me. What even is life.  
> And I absolutely live for the way Tyler tries to encourage Josh during interviews, thank you very much.
> 
> Ok I should go to sleep.
> 
> Comments are always welcome, enjoy!

Josh felt nervous. Really nervous.

He had never been that good at dealing with new things, and starting a new job most definitely was one of those things. Especially when he had no previous experience as a high school music teacher whatsoever (he had only ever had to teach young children).

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves a little and carefully opened the door to the teachers’ room. He sighed, happy to see there weren’t too many people around yet.

Josh scanned the room with his eyes, noticing only one empty table which he assumed had to be his.

’Oh great, I’m going to be the only new teacher, meaning everybody else already knows each other,’ he thought, his heartbeat picking up slightly again.

He walked over to the desk and had barely time to sit down when a familiar voice called out for him.

”Hey! You must be the new music teacher. Josh, right?” a blonde woman with a kind smile asked, offering Josh her hand to shake.

Josh smiled back and shook her hand, ”Yeah, Josh Dun.”

”Lovely to meet you, I'm Jenna Black, the school’s secretary. I’ll be making sure you get used to the school as fast as possible. They showed you your class at the interview already, didn’t they?” Jenna was talking fast, the smile never leaving her lips and Josh felt grateful, like maybe he would survive the day just fine.

”They did, and I was able to come here last week to take a better look at everything. I already have today’s classes all planned out.”

”Great! That means all I have to worry about right now is getting someone to show you the rest of the school,” she rubbed her chin in thought, eyes moving around the room (there were already more people there) before stopping on a man with brown hair and classes.

”Patrick!” she waved at him to come over, the man doing as told.

”Morning Jenna, what’s up?”

”Would you mind showing Josh here around the school today? He’s the new music teacher starting today,” Jenna gestured to Josh, who gave Patrick a small nod.

”Not at all. Is after lunch fine for you, Josh?”

”Yeah, that’ll be fine. Thanks,” Josh smiled, so far so good, Patrick seemed like a nice guy.

”Alright then, since that’s taken care of, I think we all should head out to work. It’s only 15 minutes until classes start,” Jenna grinned and Josh felt his nerves spike up once again.

”Here’s my number in case you need anything. Good luck!” she handed Josh a card and patted him on the shoulder before leaving the room.

”I’ll meet you here after lunch, alright? Enjoy your first day,” Patrick smiled and Josh only nodded at him, Patrick too leaving the teachers’ room.

Josh once again took a deep breath before grapping his bag and heading for his first class. All he really hoped for was that everything would go fine.

-

By lunch Josh had had three classes to teach, and it had been good.

The kids were mostly interested to see what their new teacher was like and Josh was happy as that gave him their attention quite nicely.

He had been nervous before every class, but it didn’t take too long before he loosened up as the students told him about their musical background and Josh did the same, giving a brief history of himself.

Josh found the cafeteria easily because he had eaten there when he had his job interview and bought a salad. After he got his dinner he looked around, spotting the teachers’ table thanks to Patrick waving at him.

Josh greeted him with a smile and sat down next to him.

”How was your morning?” Patrick asked him.

”It was really good, actually! The kids seem awesome,” Josh grinned right back at him.

Patrick laughed and nodded his head in agreement, ”They mostly are!”

”Anyway, we didn’t get introduced properly. I’m Patrick Stump, the art teacher.”

”Josh Dun, music teacher,” Josh answered and the two shook hands.

”Trick, you better not keep the newbie all to yourself!” the man sitting on Patrick’s other side caught their attention and only then did Josh take a look at the other people sitting around them.

There were three other men, all around the same age as Josh if he had to quess.

Patrick put up his hands in surrender, smiling, and the guy who had talked took over, offering Josh a hand, ”I’m Pete and I teach English.”

Then the man in front of Josh gave him a nod, ”I’m Joe, the math teacher and this here is Andy, he teaches history.”

Andy only smiled and gave a small wave. Josh noticed tattoos peeking from under his shirt sleeve and made a mental note to himself to ask about them sometime. He himself had tattoos covering his right arm.

”I’m Brendon and I teach drama. Love the blue, Josh,” the last man at the table smirked, gesturing to Josh’s fading blue hair.

Josh gave him a quiet ’thank you’ and shyly ran his fingers through his hair, messing them up even more than they were before. Brendon giggled and Josh could feel his cheecks heating up.

”Aaaanyway, you only started working today? Is Patrick showing you around?” Pete asked as they all went back to eating, rolling his eyes at Brendon’s direction.

”Yeah, I’ve only been working with really young kids before so this is a nice change. And Patrick is showing me around after lunch, right?” Josh glanced at Patrick who nodded.

A comfortable silence took over for a moment, though Josh felt slightly uneasy, meeting so many new people wasn’t really what he was used to.

After they were all done eating they parted ways with the rest of the group, Josh following Patrick as he started touring him around the school.

-

The first week went by fast for Josh.

He had become fairly good friends with Patrick and the others, spending all the freetime he had with them.

It was Friday and Josh was finishing up with his last class, giving the students homework and then letting them go, getting a few ’have a nice weekend’s.

He was packing his own bag when someone cleared their throat, giving Josh a near heart attack.

”Sorry dude, didn’t mean to scare you,” Pete, who was not looking sorry in the slightest laughed from the door.

Josh gave him a small glare which Pete completely ignored, walking inside and sitting on a desk in the front row.

”You wanna join us for some drinks later tonight? Almost all the teachers are going and you should really meet Tyler, his a cool dude. He’s just been too busy again to join us at lunch all week,” Pete hummed.

Josh took a minute to think it through and then shrugged, ”Sure, I quess. I'll just have to make sure I didn't have any other plans.”

”Great! You have my number so let me know and I'll text you the details,” Pete clapped his hands together and both of them left the classroom to head home.

-

Josh felt like he should’ve known better. 

He should’ve known he wouldn’t be able to handle so many people all at once in such a small room.

They were at a bar with most of the teachers from the school, making a total of nearly twenty people, all seated around one table. And apparently this wasn’t even everyone yet. It was so loud, people yelling to be heard over each other.

Josh hated it.

His throat started to close up so he quickly stood up and gave Patrick who was sitting next to him a halfhearted smile and all but ran into the bathroom, locking himself into one of the cubicles.

He sat down on the seat and silently cursed as his hands started to shake, a panic attack starting to take over.

Josh’s eyes were just starting to water up and he was gasping for air when there was a soft knock on the door. Josh wasn’t able to say anything and instead curled in on himself and tried to ignore it.

”Hey,” there was another knock, ”Are you okay in there?”

Josh tried to calm his breathing enough to answer but all he could manage was a broken groan.

”Can you open the door? That doesn’t sound good,” the voice asked but Josh made no attempt to move. He didn’t want a stranger to see him like this.

”Please, I could try and help.” 

”T-there’s not really any-anything t-to do,” Josh forced out, pressing his face into his knees.

”Come on man, at least let me try. I don’t want to leave you here alone like this.”

Josh let out a shaky breath and wiped at his wet eyes before reaching to unlock the door, the stranger immediately getting inside the cubicle and closing the door behind him. Josh didn’t even care how that seemed to anyone that walked in.

”Hey,” the man said softly, gently placing a hand on Josh’s shoulder.

”It’s okay. You’re fine. Just consentrate on breathing,” he whispered, hand moving to rub Josh’s back and surprisingly, Josh felt himself start to calm down. His breathing became by the second until it was down to just hiccups and silent sniffles.

Josh wiped his eyes again and then finally had the courage to look up at the man.

”Thank yo-” he started but froze, mouth hanging open. The other man seemed to be in the same state as him, staring down at Josh with a shocked expression.

After minutes of silence that felt like hours to Josh, he finally croaked out, ”Tyler?”.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's 3am and I'm not feeling tired yet, tomorrow's going to be lovely yay.
> 
> Thank you for the comments and kudos, they made me so happy!
> 
> Again, Josh's boyfriend is my imagination, just saying.   
> 10 points for gryffindor if someone can quess who I was inspired by for his name, though! (Hint: nothing to do with bandom)
> 
> So here, have chapter two, smooches~

”Josh, hey buddy, what’s wrong?” 13-year-old Tyler looked at his best friend, who was laying on his bed, sobbing like there was no tomorrow.

Josh didn’t even look up at him but instead muttering something into his pillow, Tyler letting out a gentle chuckle.

”Can’t hear you.”

”Go away, I don’t want you to see me crying like a baby,” Josh sniffled and burrowed his face back into the pillow.

Tyler sighed and walked over to the bed, sitting on it next to his friend and reached his hand to pat Josh’s hair.

”I don’t care if you cry,” he paused, consentrating on the soft hair for a second before adding, ”Your mom asked me to come over, actually. She said you’ve been crying for a long time. What’s wrong Josh?”

Josh sobbed again before moving to lay on his side and looked up at Tyler. His eyes were red from crying and Tyler thought he looked really worn out.

”We’re moving away, Tyler. Like, far away. I have to change schools and I won’t get to see you anymore and I just don’t want to go!” Josh nearly yelled, tears rolling down his cheeks again and he felt like couldn’t breathe.

Tyler was fast to pull him up to a sitting position and hug him tightly, Josh’s breathing problems already familiar for him.

Tyler knew Josh was moving, had overheard his and Josh’s parents talking about it just a few days ago.

It broke his heart too, of course it did. Nobody wanted to lose their best friend. But he knew he had to be there for Josh, the other boy had always been a lot more fragile than himself.

”Josh, look at me,” he whispered, loosening his arms around the boy so he could move back enough to properly look at him.

”It’s going to be fine. We will visit each other every chance we get and we can always call. I’m still gonna be your best friend, okay?”

Josh gave a sad smile and a nod before burying his face back into Tyler’s chest.

 

-

 

All Tyler could do was stare. 

The man in front of him looked an awfully lot like Josh. As in, his Josh. His childhood best friend he hadn’t seen in ages.

He looked really different though. Older (obviously), he had a stubble growing and most of all, his hair was blue. Not in a million years would Tyler have believed that the shy boy who hated any kind of attention would go ahead and dye his hair with such a bright color. 

Tyler had to admit he had become really handsome, though.

But even with how much he had changed, he was still the same. His eyes were just as brown as he remembered and he was supporting the same worried expression Tyler could remember from their childhood.

”Tyler?” Josh asked and suddenly Tyler was absolutely sure it was Josh, his voice now familiar after seeing his face.

Tyler took a moment before answering, his brain trying to catch up with the situation.

”Your hair is blue,” he stated dumbly, wanting to slap himself right after the words left his mouth.

Josh gave an uneasy laugh, finally braking eye contact and looking at his hands, ”Yeah um, I’m actually thinking of going back to brown. This isn’t really me, huh?”

”It looks nice.”

It was silent again and Tyler wanted to say something, anything, but his words left him.

To his surprise, Josh took over, awkwardly yes, but he did it anyway, ”So.. What are you doing here?”

Tyler smiled, Josh had always been straight to the point.

”I’m actually here with some colleagues. I’m a PE teacher. What about you?” Tyler opened the door of the cubicle, gesturing for Josh to follow him out of the small space, seeing the other man had gotten himself under control again.

”Oh, that’s cool. You always were into sports,” Josh smiled as he went to the sink to was his face. The tension between them seemed to disappear slowly.

”I’m also here with colleagues too, actually. Just started a new job as a high school music teacher, so I’m getting to know people.”

”Wait. YOU are the new music teacher?” Tyler asked, his eyes widening in realization.

”What?” Josh looked at him through the mirror.

”Dude we work at the same school! Pete has been telling me all week how I should meet the new music teacher. This is so weird,” Tyler laughed. The world really was a small place wasn’t it.

The look of realization crossed Josh’s face and he turned around, leaning back on the sink.

”They did mention I should meet someone named Tyler,” he tapped his chin in thought, ”Must be you then, huh?”

Tyler opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted as the door to the bathroom opened and Brendon stumbled inside. He stopped to look at the two men and raised an eyebrow.

”Okay, wow. I don’t know if I’m drunk or imagining things, but I can actually feel the sexual tension in here,” he laughed and Tyler noticed how Josh’s cheeks got pink. It was absolutely endearing and Tyler had to force himself to look back to Brendon.

”Oh shut up Brendon. We’re just catching up,” he gave the drama teacher an unimpressed look.

”Hold on, you two know each other?”

”Yeah, we used to be friends when we were younger.”

”Oooooh drama! Did you have a fallout or something? Actually, you can tell us all about it back at the table with others. I’m sure everybody would love to hear what happened,” Brendon was talking way too much for Tyler’s liking, but that wasn’t anything new. Josh was scratching the back of his neck uneasily and Tyler felt bad for him.

”We’ll see about that, Bren. Come on Josh, let’s go join the others, we really do need to catch up,” Josh nodded and they left Brendon to the bathroom, giggling to himself.

 

-

 

The rest of the night had went by nicely. 

Josh had been able actually get to know some of his colleagues better, and he was pleasantly surprised how well he got along with everybody, especially Brendon after they (Josh) forgot about the bathroom incident.

He might have been avoiding Tyler a little through the night, not feeling like talking about past. Tyler had, however, caught his sleeve when everybody was starting to leave the bar and Josh had agreed to go for a coffee with him the following week.

Patrick and Pete had insisted on walking Josh back home since they didn’t live too far from his place. 

”So are you two like, together?” Josh had blurted out on the way home. Alcohol really wasn’t for him, he decided. ”I mean, nothing against it, I’m just getting this feeling from you guys.”

The two men looked at each other and Patrick shrugged, ”Yeah, we’re dating. But we tell most people at work we’re just roommates.”

”Jenna, Andy, Joe, Tyler and Brendon know, of course,” Pete added.

Josh nodded, ”That’s cool.”

”What about you, Josh? Do you have a special someone?” Pete smirked, raising an eyebrow, Patrick joining in.

Josh felt a shiver go through his body and he took just a bit too long to answer, his mouth opening and closing a few times.

”Yeah, actually I, too, live with my boyfriend. We’ve been together for two years now,” he tried to smile as best as he could. Running his hand through his hair again, a nervous reaction of his.

Patrick gave him a look but Pete just nodded, smiling, and changed the subject.

Josh was thankful.

-

”Babe, get up. Your phone is ringing."

Josh didn’t answer, he didn’t want to wake up. It was Monday morning and he wasn’t ready to go to work.

”Josh, come on. Get up,” the man on the bed grumbled, lightly pushing at Josh’s back.

Josh flinched a little, but covered it up by sitting up quickly and reaching over to the bedside table to turn off his alarm.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes, he had half an hour until he had to head to work.

Josh stood up and went to get some clean clothes from the closet to wear before heading to the shower.

When he was rinsing his hair from shampoo, he heard the bathroom door open and close and his breathing hitched when his boyfriend entered the shower to join him. He moved behind Josh, wrapping his arms around his waist.

”You’re so pretty,” he whispered into Josh’s ear.

Josh gulped, ”I have to go to work soon, Sean.”

Sean scoffed and bit the lobe of his ear before forcefully turning Josh around and glaring down at him.

”All you need to do, Joshua, is to do exactly what I tell you to do. You teach music, it’s not that important anyway, you know. Nobody cares if you show up or not.”

Josh tried not to let Sean’s words to get to him. He tried to, but it still hurt. The person he loved thought what he did was useless.

And the worst thing was, Josh believed him.

Sean had told him his music was complete shit many times now, and eventually Josh bought it.

Sean gripped Josh’s upper arm hard enough that Josh was pretty sure it would bruise later and kissed him.

Josh let it happen.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All/any mistakes on me, please feel free to tell me if there's something really obvious.
> 
>  
> 
> I'm sososo happy now because I'm going to see tøp in october and jesus take the wheel I'm probably gonna cry. 
> 
> Again it's 3am and I should probably sleep.
> 
> Comments and kudos make my days, enjoy the chapter!

Tyler was sitting in the cafeteria, staring at a wall with an unfocused look on his face.

”What’s up with him?” Joe whispered to the others as they all looked at Tyler, who had been sitting in the same position for the past ten minutes, ignoring everyone and everything around him.

”I don’t know, he was acting weird all weekend,” Jenna frowned. The two of them had dinner together on Saturday and Tyler had been really out of it.

”Maybe it has something to do with Josh? What is the dude up to anyway, he didn’t join us for lunch yesterday either,” Brendon mumbled , his mouth full of fries.

Jenna shrugged, ”I saw him this morning, he looked really busy. What would Tyler’s mood have to do with Josh, though?”

”He didn’t tell you? And you say you guys are best friends,” Brendon shook his head in mock disappointment and Jenna punched his arm, telling him to just spill it.

”You punch like a girl,” Brendon stuck out his tongue at her, rubbing his arm neverthless. ”I caught them in the bathroom on Friday and it was weird, man. Like there was a weird tension around them. Apparently they’re like childhood friends or something.”

Jenna stood up as soon as the words left Brendon’s mouth and she walked over to Tyler without a word dragged the man out of the cafeteria.

The five men still sitting at the table looked after them in confused silence until Andy giggled and everyone just went back to eating.

-

”You didn’t tell me you know Josh!” Jenna glared at Tyler.

They were outside, sitting on a bench in a park next to the school.

”What does Josh have to do with anything? And why are you angry about it?” Tyler frowned and crossed his arms over his chest.

Jenna kept on glaring, ”We’re best friends, you always tell me everything! And you’ve been acting all weird since Saturday, Brendon told me he walked in on you and Josh being weird on Friday so I’m assuming that’s bothering you.”

Tyler sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. 

Jenna had a point and yeah, she was absolutely right. Tyler had been thinking about Josh all weekend, meeting him after all these years had brought back some unwanted memories.

”Do you remember how I told you about a friend of mine who moved away when I was, like, 13?”

Jenna raised an eyebrow and nodded, ”You said you two were best friends but just lost contact. That was Josh?”

Tyler nodded and bit his lips in thought. ”The thing is, we didn’t just suddenly stop being friends. After he moved away I started to hang out with these other guys at school and they, um, they would tell me how happy they were that I had ’gotten rid of that gay boy who was always clinging to me’ or something just as ridiculous,” he paused, not wanting to go further with the story. He wasn’t proud of it.

”The next time Josh came over to visit me, I took him to meet my new friends because they had asked me to do so. I was stupid and needed friends, it had been just me Josh before.”

Jenna shook her head a little, like she already knew where Tyler was going with this.

”They beat him up, called him names. And I just left him there, crying on the ground. He cried for me, Jenna.”

Jenna didn’t say anything and Tyler didn’t dare look up at her.

”I tried calling him afterwards but he never answered. And I don’t blame him. We never talked again,” he sighed, rubbing his face again in frustration.

”I’m surprised he didn’t punch you the second he saw you,” Jenna said and Tyler gave him a look, making her laugh a little.

”I’m serious man, I think I would’ve done that in his situation.”

Tyler sighed, ”That’s not like Josh. He was always too scared and nice to defend himself.”

Jenna was silent for a moment, looking up at the bright sky, her hair moving with the wind.

”You were just a kid, you know. You should talk to him. It’s clearly bothering you a lot and I think it’s been long enough for him to get over it too,” she finally said, turning to smile at Tyler and pulling him into a side hug.

”I managed to ask him to go for a coffee on Friday, but I think he’s avoiding me now so we can’t agree on a time.”

”Just go see him, Tyler.”

-

It was Wednesday and Josh had just finished the last class of the day. He was now erasing the notes he had written down for the students to copy. It had been a long day and his arm was sore where Sean had grabbed him.

”Um, Josh?”

He jumped around, his heart in his throat and turned around. He really should try and pay attention to his surroundings more.

Josh looked at the door to see a nervous-looking Tyler. He took a deep breath and willed himself to calm down. He had done such a good job at avoiding everybody for three days, he should’ve known that he wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever.

Josh realized Tyler had probably asked him something, if his look was anything to go about, and cleared his throat.

”Sorry, what?”

”I just asked if we could talk? Maybe go for a coffee, if you still want to."

It was weird seeing Tyler like this. Self-concious and worried. Josh almost felt bad.

”Uh, I have to head home now, my boyfriend’s waiting,” he answered, trying his best to sound confident.

He figured Tyler had gotten over the whole gay-thing, as he knew about Patrick and Pete too.

”How about tomorrow? After school? I really, really want to clear things up with you. Like, I’m so sorry-” Josh waved his hands to stop him, he didn’t want apology for something that had happened fifteen years ago. It was just a few years too late in Josh’s opinion.

”Fine, we can talk tomorrow, but save the apologies, alright?” he took his bag and started to walk out of the class.

”But I am sorry!” Tyler took a hold of his arm to stop him. He didn’t squeeze hard, but it was enough to send pain from the old bruise and Josh pulled away like he’d been shocked.

”Woah, what was that?” Tyler asked, a frown on his face and Josh looked away, rubbing his arm gently.

”Forget about it. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he fled the room before Tyler could say anything else.

On his way to his car Josh forced down the angry tears.

He didn’t need Tyler looking out for him. That was in the past.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, it's another chapter.   
> All of your comments and kudos really inspired me to write, thank you so much!♡

Tyler called Jenna the second he was back home.

It felt like she took forever to answer, and Tyler sat down on the floor in his living room, leaning back against the small couch.

”Yeah?” was all she said when she finally picked up.

”I tried to talk to Josh. I swear, the dude hates my guts, Jenna,” Tyler threw his head back in frustration.

There was a sigh on the other end, ”Ty, sweetie, as your friend I have to be honest with you. You fucked him over pretty badly. He has every right to be angry at you.”

Tyler didn’t say anything, he knew Jenna was right. Jenna was always right, after all.

”And you said he was shy back then, Tyler. Just imagine what losing his best friend did to him,” Jenna paused before adding, ”He still seems pretty reserved, now that I think about it.”

”He is,” Tyler groaned, ”When I met him on Friday, he was having a panic attack in the bathroom. It used to happen on a daily basis when we were younger. I can only imagine it just got worse after the shit I put him through.”

”Don’t you ever tell him I told you about the panic attacks,” he added and Jenna scoffed.

”You know I wouldn’t do that. In my opinion, you just have to keep trying and see if he’ll warm up to you. Just give him time.”

”Yeah,” Tyler breathed.

”And don’t be too pushy,” it was Tyler’s turn to scoff.

He wanted to tell Jenna about the way Josh had jumped when he had touched his arm, but he wasn’t really sure what to think of it, so he kept quiet.

”You think he’s cute, don’t you?” Jenna suddenly asked, breaking the comfortable silence the two had fallen into.

Tyler nearly choked on his own saliva and coughed out, ”What? Not really, no. I just want to apologize and become friends with him again. I missed him.”

”Mm-hm, whatever you say, man,” Jenna giggled, making Tyler roll his eyes again..

 

-

 

It was late, maybe 11PM or so, Josh couldn’t be bothered to check, and he was walking around aimlessly.

He had left home sometime ago, the need to get away from Sean getting overwhelming.

It hadn’t always been this bad. Back when they met two years ago Sean had been kind and sweet, taking care of Josh when he had bad weeks.

But slowly, things had changed. Sean had become possessive, getting jealous of anyone Josh interacted with, ending up with Sean hurting Josh, physically and mentally. Finally causing Josh to cut ties with the few friends he had. It hadn’t helped.

Now pretty much the only people Josh talked to outside of work were his parents and sometimes his siblings.

Josh knew it wasn’t healthy. He knew their relationship only made his own problems bigger, but he didn’t know a way out. They were living together, they shared a life together, and Josh felt like he owed Sean too much to just leave him.

And when Sean was more like when they met, when he didn’t get angry about everything Josh did and when he didn’t try to push him down, Josh really loved him.

It was getting really cold, summer starting to end, and Josh regretted not taking a jacket with him.

He ended up in a park, sitting on a bench and pulling his knees up to his chest in hope to gather up some warmth.

He wasn’t sure what to do next. Sean would be furious when he went back, and he certainly wasn’t ready to deal with that yet.

Josh pulled out his phone and started going through his contacts; maybe he could stay with a friend. It wasn’t a long list, since Sean had made him delete all of his frieds’ numbers, and now it was mostly just family and work related.

He thought about calling Brendon, but was certain he would ask a million and one questions Josh wasn’t willing to answer. He had already made Patrick and Pete suspicious before, so that wouldn’t work out and he didn’t have either Joe’s nor Andy’s numbers yet.

He let out a sigh, his jaw was aching where Sean had hit him earlier. He just hoped to god there wouldn’t be a mark tomorrow, it hadn’t been a hard punch.

He went through his contacts once more and his eyes caught Jenna’s name. He tapped on her name, finger hovering over the green call-button.

Would it be okay to call Jenna? Would she be mad at him for calling her so late. Maybe they weren’t enough of friends for something like this.

Josh forced all the insecurities out of his mind, he couldn’t go back home tonight, and pressed the button.

Jenna picked up on the fourth ring, sounding surprised, but happy as usual.

At least Josh hadn’t woken her up.

”What gives me the honour, Joshua?” Jenna’s laugh through the phone managed to calm Josh’s nerves a little.

”Hey, uh, sorry for calling so late but I was just wondering..” Josh froze, what was he supposed to say? It would be weird just asking for a place to stay at without any reason whatsoever.

”Josh?” Jenna was starting to sound worried, ”You still there?”

Josh shook his head and cleared his throat, ”Yeah, sorry. It’s just that, there was some sort of leakage at my apartment and I can’t stay there for tonight. Do you think I could maybe stay at your place? It’ll be all good tomorrow, I promise.”

”That would be completely fine, but I live pretty far outside the city,” she went silent and Josh’s heart sank a little. Just his luck.

”Tyler would let you stay with him though. You know Tyler, right? The gym teacher? He lives near the school.”

Josh felt his heartbeat pick up even more and he quickly answered, ”Oh no, I-I don’t want to bother him. I’ll just find a motel or something. It’s no big deal.”

”No way in hell am I letting you stay in a motel, Josh. Just give me five minutes to call Tyler and he’ll pick you up. Where are you?” 

Josh was cold and tired, too worn out to put up any more fight.

”At the central park,” he sighed, pressing his face against his knees.

Anything was better than going back home.

 

-

 

Tyler was woken up by his phone going off on his bedside table. He reached over to get it without opening his eyes, finding the damned object after a few tries and answering without checking the caller ID.

”Yeah?” he groaned.

”TYLER, YOU HAVE TO GO PICK UP JOSH FROM THE CENTRAL PARK!” Jenna’s voice screamed into his ear, causing him to wince and pull the phone away.

”Calm down, jeez,” Tyler sat up on his bed, rubbing his tired eyes.

”What do you mean pick up Josh?”

Jenna talked a little more like a normal human being now, still only barely containing her excitement, ”He just called me, apparently there’s something wrong with his place and he needs somewhere to stay for the night.”

”What about his boyfriend?” Tyler frowned.

”What?”

”He mentioned something about a boyfriend today, where is he?”

”How should I know? He just said he needed somewhere to stay.”

”And he actually agreed to come and stay with me?”

”Yes, you dumbass. Just go get him!”

If Josh was willing to come and stay with Tyler, he really had to be in a need for a place to stay.

”Alright, yeah. I’m leaving now,” he got up from the bed and threw on a random pair of sweatpants and a hoodie.

”I’ll let him know,” Jenna sang out before hanging up.

 

-

 

It was awkward.

Like, really awkward. Enough so to make Josh want to say something to brake the silence.

Tyler seemed fine, though. Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel to the music silently playing on the radio. Josh wanted to turn up the volume.

The silence was making him feel like drowning and he was seriously starting wonder what had made him think this would be a good idea.

”You didn’t take anything with you?” Tyler suddenly spoke up, Josh giving him a confused look in response.

”From your place. You don’t have a bag with you,” he shrugged, glancing at Josh, who hadn’t even thought about that.

Josh panicked, only able to mutter out ”Yeah, forgot,” and turning his attention to stare out of the window at the passing buildings. Tyler only hummed in response.

It was a short drive, ten minutes at most, and as Josh waited for Tyler to unlock the door to his flat, he couldn’t help but notice how the other man looked almost exactly the same as all those years ago.

Sure, he looked adult and all, but overall he was the same.

”You can sleep on the bed, I’ll take the couch,” Tyler said as they entered the small flat.

”No, I’m taking the couch. You already went out of your way to pick me up. Couch is just fine,” Josh argued, he didn’t like it when people did things for him. Especially when he didn’t deserve it.

He had already acted like a complete child earlier today, being rude to Tyler when all he’d done was try to apologize.

”Are you sure?”

”Positive.”

Tyler hummed again and headed to a room Josh assumed to be the bathroom.

”I have a spare toothbrush if you want to brush your teeth. Do you want anything to eat or drink?”

Tyler was being so nice to him and it reminded Josh so much of their school years, when Tyler would always look after him, making sure he was eating. Even getting into fights with whoever bullied Josh at the time.

He swallowed with some difficulty before answering, ”The toothbrush would be great, I don’t need anything else, thank you. Could we just go to sleep? Early morning tomorrow.”

Tyler came out from the bathroom and looked at Josh for a short moment before giving a small smile and a nod.

”The toothbrush is over the sink. Good night, Josh,” he said before heading to the bedroom.

”Good night,” Josh quietly called after him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments and kudos loves! They make me so happy and inspired♡
> 
> I'm extremely tired while uploading this so let's hope there aren't many mistakes.
> 
> Enjoy the chapter & let me know your thoughts!

Tyler laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

He had woken up feeling more tired than when he had when going to sleep, the reason most likely being the fact that he hadn’t been able to fall asleep until around 4AM.

And it was now 7AM. Lovely.

He tried to get his brain to make sense of the situation at hand; Josh needing a place to stay so badly even staying with Tyler was fine, the obvious lie about something being wrong with his apartment and the fact he wasn’t with his boyfriend.

It was just so obvious that something was wrong and Tyler was starting to get worried.

He knew it wasn’t any of his business, but he couldn’t help it. He still cared about Josh. Never had stopped caring.

He rubbed his eyes and yawned, getting out of bed with some great effort.

After throwing on the clothes he had decided on the day before, he headed out to the living room.

Josh was already up, sitting on the couch and looking so out of place Tyler almost let out a laugh, ”Mornin’.”

Josh jumped a little in surprise and his head snapped to look at Tyler’s direction.

”Morning,” he then mumbled back and Tyler went into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

”Do you want coffee? I’m gonna make some anyway, so it’s no problem,” he asked around his toothbrush, managing to actually sound understandable while doing so.

”If it’s not any trouble,” came an answer and Tyler grinned at the mirror in victory, he was starting to understand how Josh’s mind worked.

After done with everything else, Tyler made coffee. He poured it into two cups, taking milk and sugar and placing them on the small kitchen table in case Josh used either.

”Coffee’s done,” he informed Josh who was now in the bathroom brushing his teeth and sat down at the table.

Josh joined him soon enough, sitting down opposite from him and quickly taking a sip out of his coffee. His body visibly relaxed and he let out a small sound, making Tyler smile behind his own cup.

”Did you sleep well?” Tyler asked, the tension around them mostly gone for now.

Josh hummed, nodding a little, ”Yeah, thanks.” But Tyler knew he didn’t, there were dark circles under his eyes and he looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept at all.

Tyler took a better look at Josh, about to protest, but then he saw it. There was a small bruise on Josh’s jaw, on the left side of his face and Tyler could’ve tried to tell himself it was nothing. Could’ve told himself Josh had just hit it or something like that. It wasn’t an obvious bruise anyway.

But he was suspicious. So much about the blue haired man seemed off. The still occuring panic attacks, the way he had reacted when Tyler had touched his arm the day before, how jumpy he was being and now this.

Tyler hated it. Hated seeing that Josh hadn’t gotten any better since they were kids, and it had been fifteen years. It just wasn’t fair.

He didn’t say anything, though. About the bruise or anything else going through his head. How could he when he was certain all Josh would do is get angry and probably close up even more than he was now.

Meaning he would start avoiding Tyler completely, which wouldn’t be too far from the situation at hand, but still.

”I’m sorry about yesterday,” Tyler was pulled out of his thoughts and looked at Josh with his eyebrows raised, not really sure what he meant.

Josh drummed his fingers on the table and looked Tyler straight in the eye and Tyler felt like it was for the first time since they met in the bar.

”At school, I mean. It was really rude of me. I just…” Josh trailed off and Tyler rushed to stop him.

”Don’t apologize for that, man. You have every right to be mad at me,” Josh still looked doubtful so he added, ”Jenna was actually surprised you didn’t punch me when you saw me.”

He realized too late he had just admitted on telling Jenna what went down between the two of them, but Josh either didn’t notice or just simply decided to ignore it.

Instead he laughed breathlessly and Tyler took in the sound, relief flooding in his chest as he gave a laugh of his own.

After a minute they went back into a comfortable silence, the only sound coming from Josh still tapping at the table.

But Tyler wasn’t satisfied just yet, breaking the silence once again, ”I meant it, you know. That I’m sorry.”

Josh looked up at him and studied him for a second, as if searching for something before braking into a smile and answering.

”I know.”

 

-

 

By the time he was done with all of his classes for the day, Josh was exhausted.

Not only because of school, of course. Truth be told, he found his job fairly easy, most of his students were motivated and behaved well enough.

It was Friday and last night, when Josh had went back home, he had been greeted by his furious boyfriend, just as predicted.

Sean had yelled at him, pushed him, told him what a piece of shit he was, and in the end, Josh had locked himself into their small guest room. It was worse than he thought it would be.

Sure, no punches were thrown (Sean wasn’t stupid enough to make it obvious for everyone to see), but the words were worse than usual.

Sean made Josh feel useless. Reminded him he was the only reason Josh was still alive.

”I saved you. You would be nothing without me. If I didn’t put up with you, nobody would.”

After Sean had finally stopped banging on the door to the guest room and left, supposedly to sleep, Josh had went to a drawer and searched for a razor he kept there for when everything was too hard to deal with.

The week old cuts on his thighs weren’t completely healed yet, but he didn’t care. He needed something to make the feelings go away.

Josh had left for work early this morning, before Sean had woken up.

He leaned back on his chair, rubbing his tired eyes. When had he last slept more than five hours? He couldn’t remember.

Thanks to the lack of sleep sharpening his senses he for once heard it when someone appeared at his class’ door and he looked to see Brendon casually enter the room.

”Alright, Josh, here’s the deal. I can see you’re fucking stressed out, so what we’re going to do now is get the fuck out of here and go get so fucking drunk you don’t even remember your own fucking name,” he simply stated, leaning on one of the desks on first row and crossing his arms over his chest.

”Dude, you just said the word fuck, like, four times in one sentence,” Brendon just shrugged and Josh sighed, getting up from his chair and starting to pack his bag. ”I can’t go. There’s things to do at home.”

”What on earth could be more important than a night out with your old pal Brendon? Josh, I feel so offended!” Brendon gasped and held a hand over his chest in false offense.

Josh just rolled his eyes, leaning against his own desk, facing Brendon and copying his posture, arms crossed over his chest. ”I can’t. Sorry.”  
Brendon pouted, ”But I need someone to go wiiiiiith!”

”How about Pete and Patrick? Jenna? Tyler?”

”Ugh, please. ’Trick and Pete get all lovey dovey and it’s annoying, while Jenna can drink anyone under the table and Tyler gets wasted from, like, two drinks.”

”And what makes you think I can drink well? I don’t usually drink,” Josh laughed, the idea of Jenna outdrinking Brendon amusing him to no end.

”Oh come on, you can’t be worse than Tyler,” Brendon laughed.

Josh rolled his eyes but he was still laughing, and thought about the offer. It could keep his mind off of Sean and maybe he wouldn’t have to go home tonight.

”Can I stay over at your place?” Brendon looked surprised, and Josh was quick to add, ”I don’t want to wake up my boyfriend if I get back late.”

Brendon seemed happy with the answer and grinned again, ”Sure.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so much for comments and kudos, they keep me going♡
> 
> So Josh and Brendon go drinking, not really sure how I feel about this chapter.
> 
> Enjoy!

”So, have you been teaching here for a long time?” Josh asked Brendon once they sat down at a table in a small pub. They both got beers and Brendon took a sip of his before answering.

”About three years now, I moved here after a bad brake-up and got to know Tyler. I had no job and lived in a crappy motel for some time but he helped me out a lot. He was actually the one that recommended me for the job.”

Josh nodded and chewed on his bottom lip, he had always admired people like Brendon who were able to talk about the hard times of their lives so easily. He couldn’t do it.

”That’s really nice of him,” Josh answered after a second and Brendon nodded, smiling.

”How about you? Why did you move here?”

Josh took a long sip of his beer to buy him some time to think. The real reason was because Sean had wanted to move together and away from Josh’s old friends and family, but he wasn’t about to tell Brendon that.

”Sean, my boyfriend, got a job so we moved here together, and I had just finished my studies so it was lucky to find out that there was a music teacher’s spot open,” he laughed and Brendon nodded.

 

-

 

They had been sitting in the pub for nearly three hours, just talking about this and that and getting to know each other. Josh had discovered that Brendon was actually a really good singer and had made him promise he’d show him sometime. They also shared a similar taste in music and movies, and Josh actually felt really comfortable around Brendon.

Josh hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he was a bit of a lightweight, and after four beers he was already feeling warm and tipsy, giggling at almost anything Brendon said.

”Okay I take it back, you’re way worse than Tyler,” Brendon laughed.

Josh tried to glare at him but ended up grinning instead, ”I told you!”

Brendon stared at him for a while with a thoughtful look and then asked, ”What’s up with you two anyway? I tried to ask Tyler but he just ignored it.”

Josh knew this would come up, and thanks to the alcohol, he was feeling more honest than usual, so he just shrugged, ”We used to be friends and he hurt me. But we were kids so it’s fine.”

”Dude, that was vague as shit. What did he do? It had to be pretty bad if you guys stopped being friends. Also you’re still mad at him, aren’t you?”

”I’m not exactly mad at him, it’s just,” Josh tried to think of a way to describe the way he felt about Tyler. He didn’t hate him, never really had.

Brendon just watched him for a second, but when it seemed Josh was struggling to go on, he asked, ”Just tell me what he did?”

Josh nodded and sighed, he hadn’t really talked about this since when it happened. The only people he’d told were his family, even Sean didn’t know. It was past, and it hadn't seemed important since he had thought he’d never meet Tyler again.

”I’ve had anxiety my whole life, and it was really difficult for me to make friends, so I was a very lonely child,” Brendon gave him a sympathetic look but Josh just shrugged it off.

”When I was eight years old, Tyler’s family moved to the house next to ours and thanks to our parents becoming friends, we became friends too,” Josh sipped his beer and smiled a little at the memory. He remembered the first time Tyler had come to visit with his parents. Josh had been so shy and his mother had pretty much had to force him to go play with Tyler, while the other boy had been all smiles and giggles.

Brendon took a drink too but didn’t say anything, so Josh kept going, ”Tyler helped me a lot, too. He tried his best to stop other kids from bullying me at school, and when they still did, he made me feel better. He even knew how to deal with me when I had panic attacks.”

The alcohol was making him awfully honest, he noticed, but then again didn’t really care at this point.

”But when we were thirteen, my father got a job offer from another city and we had to move away. Of course we promised to keep in touch every chance we got, and we did, but when I came back to visit him after like, a month after moving away, he..” suddenly it felt like his throat was closing up, making Josh stop talking..

Maybe it was because he hadn’t talked about this in so long, or maybe it was just the beers making him emotional, but he could feel his eyes watering up.

He didn’t notice Brendon getting up and moving to the seat next to him until the other man was pulling him into a side hug, Josh’s head resting on his shoulder.

”Sorry, it’s so stupid of me to get sad over this, it’s been so long,” he gave a small laugh and fought the tears back, Josh didn’t like crying in front of others.

”It’s alright man,” Brendon whispered, patting Josh’s hair comfortingly.

It took a few minutes but eventually Josh carried on with his story, head still resting on Brendon’s shoulder. ”When Tyler picked me up from the train station he was acting weird, jumpy, and then he took me to my old school, where there were maybe eight other kids waiting for us. I didn’t have time to do anything before they had pushed me down and started kicking. But the worst part was seeing Tyler standing there behind them, looking anywhere else but me. When it was over and they were starting to leave, I cried out for Tyler, but he didn’t even look at me. They just left me there, bloody and with a broken arm.”

After he was done, Josh took a deep breathe. It felt surprisingly relieving to tell this to someone other than his family. Especially now that Tyler had come around again and the memories had surfaced.

Brendon didn’t answer and Josh lifted his head to look at him, only to find out he was staring at him in shock, like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.

”Tyler did that? The same sweet Tyler who helped me get back to my feet? Why on earth would anyone do something like that? How did you even get back home? Jesus christ Josh you should hate the dude,” he rambled, clearly having trouble deciding how to feel about what he’d just heard.

Josh just shrugged, ”I laid there for an hour or so before being able to get up again and then headed to the train station and took the first train back home. My mother picked me up from the station. I never talked to him again so I don’t really know why he did what he did, but eventually figured out it didn’t matter. We were kids, and kids do stupid things,” Brendon frowned and opened his mouth to say something but Josh beat him to it.

”I don’t hate Tyler, I never really did. Sure, I was angry at him at first, and felt angry when I saw him again after all this time, but I don’t blame him, so please don’t get angry at him for something that happened over ten years ago. Especially since it seems like he’s actually a really nice person.”

Brendon crossed his arms over his chest, ”Fine. But you know you have every right to hate him, right?”

”I know.”

”And you’re sure you don’t want me to slap the dude for you? Don’t get me wrong, I love Tyler, but you’re my friend too, and I feel like that would be approptiate.”

Josh laughed. Honestly, he felt a lot better than he had in a long time, especially since meeting Tyler at the bar the other week. Talking about the incident really helped.

”No, it’s okay, I’m pretty much over it already. Maybe I’ll try to talk things through with Tyler at some point.”

Brendon smiled and nodded, happy with the answer, and changed the subject, ”What we’re going to do now, is forget about all this angsty stuff for the time being and get some shots! I promised you you’d forget your name by the end of the night didn’t I?”

Josh groaned but followed Brendon to the counter anyway, one shot wouldn’t kill him, right?


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look who's back!   
> So sorry this took so long. I had to figure out where I wanted to go with this story.
> 
> Also I went to see their gig and I want back to that moment help pls.
> 
> Thank you so much for all the comments and cudos, they keep me motivated♡
> 
> Enjoy!

Josh was woken up by a loud voice yelling, ”Rise and shine, Joshua!”

The blue haired man groaned and turned to his side, pulling the blanket over his aching head. He really should’ve known better than to agree to doing shots with Brendon. They had started with one shots, but before Josh knew it, Brendon had bought them tequila and that never ended well.

Needless to say Josh had no memories of the rest of the night whatsoever.

Soon the blanket was being pulled away from Josh, who was feeling too sick to fight it. He was pretty sure he would throw up instantly if he tried moving too much.

”Come on Josh, I need to head out in half an hour,” Brendon said and Josh carefully turned to lay on his back again before slowly sitting up.

”It feels like someone is hitting the inside of my head with a hammer. How are you not hangover? How did we even get here?” Josh looked around the room for the first time since waking up. He was on a sofa in a small living room. The flat had a homey feeling to it from what Josh could see.

Brendon laughed and gave Josh a glass of water and a painkiller, ”Of course you wouldn’t remember. I drank a lot less than you, one of us had to be able to get us home, you know. I practically carried you here from the taxi.”

Josh swallowed the pill and frowned, ”Oh god, I’m so sorry.”

”I don’t mind, really. You’re actually a fun drunk, like you get all giggly and it’s cute. You’re also a lot lighter than I expected,” Brendon shrugged and then looked thoughtful, ”You did disappear for like fifteen minutes and I was fucking worried, man. But then you just suddenly appeared again and said something about an urgent call.”

Josh’s blood ran cold. Had he called someone? He just hoped to god he hadn’t called Sean and made things even worse than they already were. ”Any idea who I called?”

”You refused to say. Check your phone, though? I’m actually curious about who drunk Josh’s drunk mind would call at three in the morning,” Brendon grinned.

Josh looked around and found his jeans from the floor next to the sofa and pulled his phone out of the pocket with slightly trembling fingers. He noticed it was already nearly 1PM and briefly felt bad for taking over Brendon’s sofa for so long.

Josh took a deep breath and went to look at his recent calls, and there it was.

”So? Who did you call?”

Josh opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before muttering out, ”Tyler.”

Brendon started laughing like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard, and Josh was sure he would never live this one down.

 

-

 

Tyler woke up at 10AM on Saturday morning, wondering if the call from Josh last night had been a dream or not.

After checking his phone he was sure it had been real. And that worried Tyler.

Josh had been really, really wasted, apparently out with Brendon (that didn’t really surprise Tyler), and he had mostly talked complete nonsense for the duration of the fifteen minutes they had talked. He had even said he didn’t hate Tyler and wanted to work things out, which could’ve just been the alcohol talking, but Tyler had his fingers crossed.

The worrying part was that Josh had said he was scared to go home. He hadn’t went to details and laughed it off as soon as he had said it, but that only established Tyler’s suspicions that there was something going on with him.

Tyler ended up calling Jenna, she always knew what to do.

She answered quickly and Tyler was glad, ”What’s up, Tyleretta?”

”Really Jen, you still won’t let that one go?”

”Over my dead body. So, what’s up?”

And Tyler told Jenna everything. How there had to be something wrong with Josh, how the man had acted like he’d been burnt when Tyler had touched his arm, how he had had a bruise on his jaw when he stayed over at Tyler’s place and the call from last night.

”I just feel like his boyfriend is beating him up or something, and I don’t know what to do,” he finished, desperate for Jenna to tell him what to do with this.

She was quiet for a moment, thinking everything through. ”Tyler, that’s really serious. Are you sure Josh is getting hurt?”

”Well, not 100%, but I know something is wrong. He’s scared to go home. Enough so to stay over at my place, Jenna.”

Jenna sighed, and Tyler was pretty sure she felt the same way he did. A need to do something, but nothing to really be done.

”I don’t know if there’s much we can do. I don’t know Josh well enough to just go and ask him about it, and you two haven’t even properly made up yet,” she said, more to herself than to Tyler. ”But then again, if this Sean is really hurting him, we can’t just simply watch and let it happen.”

”Yeah. I don’t know what to do,” Tyler sighed, putting Jenna on the speaker and started making coffee, his brain felt too slow for his liking.

”First of all I think you should try to talk things through with him.”

”Mmh, I think he’d be fine with that, actually. Like, it seems like he’s not as angry with me as I first thought.”

”That’s good. After that, we’ll figure out how to deal with the rest.”

 

-

 

Josh was sitting in a café, going on his third cup of coffee and tapping on his phone nervously.

He had five missed calls and ten unanswered messages from Sean, but he wasn’t ready to answer him yet. Wasn’t ready to deal with the yelling and the verbal abuse. And the more he put it off he felt like not dealing with it at all.

Josh almost felt like he should just try to disappear. Maybe if he just left everything would work out, maybe he could get a fresh start.

It seemed like a good idea, but the problem was, Josh really loved Sean. Or had loved him. He wasn’t even sure anymore. But he knew he owed Sean for he had helped Josh through some of the worst times of his life.

It was stupid, honestly. Josh knew he would probably be better off without Sean, but leaving felt just too hard. It was like there would be nothing left for him if Sean wasn’t there.

He shook his head and took a sip of his coffee. He didn’t want to think about that.

So instead he did what he had been trying to do all day, had been trying to gather up enough courage, and swiped his phone’s screen to call Tyler.

”Josh?” Tyler answered, his voice sounded weird through the phone, Josh thought.

”Yeah, hey. I, um, wanted to apologize for last night, you know. Apparently I called you and I don’t even know what I said but I’m so, so sorry-” he was cut off by Tyler’s laugh, and Josh couldn’t his own lips lifting up to a small smile at the sound.

”It’s no problem, honestly! You pretty much just talked nonsense and giggled like a maniac, you know.”

Josh groaned, so he had just made a complete fool of himself.

”You did say you wanted to talk things through, though,” Tyler sounded more serious now. ”Would you like to? I mean, I really want to, so maybe we could..” he trailed off.

Josh bit his bottom lip before answering, ”Yeah, I’d like that too. I’m actually in a café right now, so if you’re not busy, maybe-”.

”Not at all!” Tyler blurted out, making Josh laugh a little. ”I mean, that would be cool, where are you?”

 

-

 

They sat in an awkward silence for a good few minutes (to Josh it felt more like an hour) after Tyler sat down across from Josh with a coffee of his own.

Finally Tyler cleared his throat, making Josh look up to him, ”So, um. I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but I’m really sorry, Josh. You know, for the shit I put you through.”

Josh took a sip of his coffee, he had lost count of how many cups he had drank by now and nodded.

”I know. And I’m sorry for acting like a child and getting angry at you for something that happened so long ago.”

Tyler smiled, ”That’s okay, you had the right to. I mean, what I did was not okay. I just left you there, Josh. You have no idea how long that bothered me. Like, I needed to make friends after you moved, and I don’t even know what the hell was wrong with me to think those kids would be a good choise. I’m so sorry, Josh.”

”It’s fine, I figured it was because of something like that. At first I blamed myself, was sure I had done something wrong, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized we were too good friends for you just suddenly hate me. You were just a child, it must’ve hard for you too.”

”I just feel really bad about it, you know. You were going through some seriously bad times and I went and did that. You still have anxiety and maybe things could’ve different if I didn’t fuck up.”

Josh felt his chest ache at how genuinly sorry Tyler seemed to be. He never thought the other man felt so much of this was his fault. ”Tyler. We were both kids, it hurt for some time, sure, but my situation now is not your fault. Believe me. I forgive you.”

Tyler looked him in the eyes, and Josh stared right back.

”Can we start over?” Tyler finally asked, and Josh smiled, a genuine, bright smile.

”Of course,” he offered his hand over the table and Tyler gladly took it. ”I’m Joshua Dun, but you can call me Josh.”

Tyler grinned and shook his hand, ”Tyler Joseph, so nice to meet you.”

They sat there for a couple hours, just talking about anything and everything. They actually found out they have quite a lot in common, both enjoying similar music and sports.

Josh was surprised of how easy it seemed to be for them to go back to this after so many years of no contact. It felt familiar, reminded Josh of his childhood, and honestly, he loved it.

Watching Tyler smile and laugh at something Josh had said, or frowning when the conversation took a more serious turn made Josh happy. He appreciated that whenever Josh felt uncomfortable about something he noticed and changed the subject without questioning it. They actually managed to keep the conversation fairly happy and easy.

It was about 7PM when Josh decided it was time to stop avoiding the inevitable and head home.

”This has been really nice, but I really need to head home now. Sean is probably waiting already,” he told Tyler.

For a brief second there was an odd look on the other man’s face, but then he smiled and nodded, ”Yeah, I should probably head home too.”

They both exited the café and said their goodbyes before parting ways. Josh didn’t feel nearly as scared to go home than he had just hours before.

Instead he felt happy.

He was getting his friend back, and for the time being couldn’t care less about what Sean thought of him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again all you beautiful people!
> 
> Sorry this took so long. I hit a major writer's block but all your lovely comments got me through it, thank you!
> 
> Also believe me when I say that I hate Sean just as much as all of you.
> 
> All mistakes are on me, please let me know if there are any huge mistakes!
> 
> Enjoy♡

Over the following week Tyler was happy to see that Josh started eating lunch with the rest of them at school again. The blue haired man also seemed a lot more outgoing than before, talking with everybody like he had no anxiety whatsoever. For some reason, seeing him like that made Tyler feel proud.

The two of them hadn’t really talked after their heart to heart on Saturday, apart from whatever smalltalk they had during work. But at least it was clear Josh didn’t hate him anymore, so Tyler took that as progress.

On Thursday, when they were all sitting in the cafeteria, Pete clapped his hands together, getting everybody’s attention, and said, ”So me and Patrick were thinking of going somewhere this weekend. All of us, I mean. You know, to forget any work-related stress for a while.”

Joe, who had already finished eating, perked up from his slumped position, ”What did you have in mind?”

”We thought going somewhere pretty far could be fun,” Patrick said, and at Joe’s protesting groan, quickly tried to justify himself, ”Without any familiar people around, we can get as drunk as we want without having to worry about running into students or anyone else. Besides, I personally feel like bonding would be good for all of us. And I still want to get to know Josh better.”

Tyler really liked the sound of that, just the eight of them, spending a weekend together. It had already been too long since they’d done that. ”Sounds good to me. Finally some quality-time with you all,” he laughed.

”Are you really agreeing to this, Tyler? You want to drive for hours just to avoid students?” Joe deadpanned.

Andy elbowed him in the side and gave him a look, ”Stop being a grump Joe, it’ll be fun. I’m in, at least.”

Joe rolled his eyes but muttered a ’fine whatever’ neverthless, making Andy smile in victory.

Tyler laughed again and turned to the rest of them, ”Josh? Jen? Brendon?”

”Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Brendon smirked, Jenna nodding her head in agreement.

”I don’t think I can go,” Josh said hesitantly, looking down at his food and it was the first time since last week Tyler had seen him this uncomfortable. He hated it.

”Jooooosh you have to come! It won’t be the same without you,” Brendon whined (bless him and his persuative ways). ”What could be more important than hanging out with your new besties?”

Josh chewed on his bottom lip. Tyler figured it was one of his nervous habits.

”Of course I’d love to go, but I don’t think Sean would.. I mean, I think we might’ve already made plans for the weekend.”

Tyler felt anger rise in his chest. He was fairly sure Josh almost said something along the lines ”Sean wouldn’t let me’, but the man was too good at keeping himself in check to let something like that slip.

He glanced at Jenna, who was looking right back with a worried expression on her face. So at least she had noticed it too.

The rest just kept on talking, and Patrick joined Brendon’s whining, ”Please Josh, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you told him you need to get to know your co-workers!”

”Guys, seriously, I don’t know,” Josh finally looked up at them.

”Please Josh,” Andy added, giving Josh his best puppy eyes and Tyler knew Josh didn’t stand a chance. Andy could be the cutest human being on earth when he wanted to, and he knew how to use that to his gain.

Josh studied him for a second before sighing in defeat and asking, ”So we’d leave tomorrow?”

Brendon high fived Andy and Patrick, and Pete laughed a little, ”Yeah, we’ll leave tomorrow as early as possible and come back on Saturday evening. We can take our car, but we need one more.”

”We can take mine,” Tyler said, knowing he wouldn’t be able to drink that much anyway, thanks to his bad tolerance for alcohol, so he would for sure be good to drive whenever they wanted to leave on Saturday.

Everybody agreed and started to leave for their next classes.

 

-

 

”You want to go away for the weekend? With your friends from work?” Sean asked with one eyebrow raised, hands crossed over his chest.

Josh swallowed thickly, he had tried to figure out how to go about asking this the whole day, and in the end had just blurted it out. ”Yeah. Patrick and Pete asked all of us to go, you know them, they’re the couple I told you about.”

Sean sighed and let his arms fall to his sides, moving toward Josh, who was standing at the door of their bedroom. Josh tensed up but tried to look as confident as possible, most likely failing miserably as always.

”I don’t care about who they are, Josh. What I care about is the fact that you call them your friends,” Josh felt his heartbeat pick up, ”You don’t have friends. And you shouldn’t feel the need for any when you have me.”

Josh's eyes widened, he didn’t want Sean to think he was ungrateful. That wasn’t the case at all.

”I don’t need them, I really don’t! It’s just, they really want me to go, and I could use the brake from thinking about work.”

Sean narrowed his eyes and stepped right in front of him, his hand going to grip Josh’s hair and forcing him to look up at him.

”You will not go. They don’t need you there, you’re nothing to them. And you need a brake? From your so called ”job”? No. Let your co-workers know you have other plans, understand?”

Josh was having a hard time breathing, his throat closing up. He nodded. Sean was right, he wasn't worthy of friends.

Sean let go of his hair and shoved him aside, leaving the room, ”Good. I’m going to take the shower and then we’re going to sleep. Be ready when I get back.”

Josh went to sit on the bed and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He couldn’t breathe. He was useless. Everyone kept him around out of pity, even Sean.

Josh needed to hear his mother’s voice, so he pulled out his phone, tapped her contact with shaky fingers and fell down on the bed, putting the phone on his ear. She answered quickly, just like she always did.

”Josh, sweetheart! I haven’t heard from you in ages! How are you?”

He let out a quiet laugh, she always made him feel better, and answered, ”Yeah, sorry. I’ve been busy with the new job and everything. But I’m alright.”

His mother laughed, but Josh could tell it was fake. She knew him well enough to know that he was lying, but there wasn’t really anything she could do about it.

Josh felt bad for making her worry, so he tried to change the subject, ”Tyler is one of my colleagues, actually,” he could still hear the shower running so he was safe to talk about it.

”Tyler?”

”Yeah, Tyler Joseph. You remember him, right?”

”Oh do I. Are you alright? Is he still mean to you? If he is you have to tell someone and-”

Josh couldn’t help a laugh escaping him. Everyone else seemed to be more conserned with Tyler than him. ”Mom it’s okay, we made up. He apologized and seemed to be really, really sorry. We’re fine.”

”Are you sure?”

”I am, we’re adults now, remember?”

His mother laughed, for real this time, and they spent the next few minutes talking about Josh’s job, until he heard the shower turn off.

”Sean finished showering, I should go.”

His mother sighed and Josh knew many things were left unsaid.

”Come visit us soon, yeah? We all miss you.”

”I will, mom, love you, tell everyone I said hi.”

”At least try to call more often, alright?”

They hung up after Josh promised to do just that, saying their ’I love you’s and goodbye’s. Josh felt a lot better already, he could breathe properly again, but there was a twinge of regret in his chest. His family shouldn’t have to worry over him like this.

He got up and stripped to his boxers, pulling on a random T-shirt to sleep in. When Sean came from the bathroom, Josh went in to brush his teeth.

He didn’t look at his boyfriend when he came back to the bedroom, but instead went to the bed, turning so his back was facing him.

Sean turned off the lights and settled down behind him, his hand resting on Josh’s hip.

It didn’t take long until Josh could feel the warm hand move under his shirt, to his stomach and slowly down toward his boxers.

He took a hold of the hand and moved it away, feeling too worn out to do this right now, ”Not tonight, Sean. I’m tired.”

Suddenly he was being pulled onto his back and Sean was straddling him. It was too dark for Josh to see much, but he could sense that Sean wasn’t happy.

”As if, Josh. You’re just being a little bitch because I’m honest with you. I’m just trying to keep you safe, love,” he then leaned down, kissing Josh softly and it confused Josh to no end.

He knew these were just mindgames Sean used to make Josh do whatever he wanted. He knew, but still fell for them time after time.

He tried to fight it, and pushed Sean away softly, ”Sean, seriously, I don’t want to. I'm tired.”

Sean let out a frustrated sound and refused to move, ”No, Joshua. You owe me this. All I ever do is look after you, and this is what I get? That’s not how dating works, you know?”

”But I don’t-” there was a loud slap and Josh’s left cheek stung from the hard blow, any protest he had dying in his throat. Sean had never pushed him into having sex before. He didn’t think the man could go that low.

”Shut. Up. You owe me. Now be a good boy and be quiet, alright.”

It wasn’t a question, and Josh knew if he were to try and fight more, it’d just make things worse.

So instead he did what he could. He closed his mouth and let his body go limp, closing his eyes and willing the feel of nothingness to take over his body.

It didn’t work.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All your comments on the last chapter made me laugh, and I was inspired so inspired to write by them! Also thank you for the kudos~
> 
> Enjoy♡

On Friday morning Tyler was feeling giddy. Actually, he had been feeling giddy all week, but especially now, since he knew they were heading out of the city for a while. Tyler liked living here, sure, but it was nice to get away every once in a while.

He arrived at the school over an hour early. He had woken up way before his alarm had went off and figured he might as well go and get ready for the day’s classes.

He didn’t expect anyone to be in the teachers’ room, but when he entered he immediately spotted blue hair (it wasn’t that hard to notice, really).

Josh was sitting at his table, going through some notes, looking like he hadn’t slept at all. There were dark circles under his eyes and he looked weirdly pale. His eyes were also red and swollen, like he’d been crying, and Tyler was instantly alarmed. Something was seriously wrong.

”Josh?” he carefully called, making the other man jump and look up frantically.

Tyler noticed Josh was trembling as he answered, trying to smile and failing miserably, ”Oh, morning, Tyler. Sorry, I d-didn’t think anyone would be here in some time yet.”

”Are you alright? You look really tired,” Tyler asked, deciding to just cut the bullshit, Josh clearly wasn’t okay.

The man frowned at Tyler and then looked back down at his papers, ”I’m fine. Just a little tired.”

’No you’re not,’ Tyler thought but decided to try a different approach. Josh seemed to have grown to be very stubborn, and Tyler didn’t want to make him feel even worse.

”So, you excited about the weekend?” he asked instead, and Josh froze, staring intently at the papers in front of him.

Bingo.

”I… I can’t go,” he breathed out and suddenly stood up, grabbing his stuff and practically running past Tyler and out of the room.

Tyler wasn’t fazed by this, but instead went after him. He caught up to him in no time, but didn’t force him to stop. He just kept up with the other man and asked as gently as he could, ”Josh, what’s wrong?”

Josh picked up his pace, Tyler doing the same. ”Nothing. Leave me alone Tyler!”

”Oh come on. There’s clearly something wrong. I still know you, Josh.”

Josh didn’t answer, but instead kept running toward his classroom.

It was when they were almost there that Tyler carefully asked, ”Is it Sean?”

Josh stopped on his tracks, Tyler nearly running right into him, and turned around, his expression empty.

”You don’t know me. You know nothing. So stop acting like you care. Leave me alone,” and with that he disappeared into his classroom, slamming the door behind himself.

Tyler just stood there for a moment. He wasn’t surprised by Josh’s reaction, nor was he offended, he had crossed some lines there, after all.

But now he knew he was right. Sean was doing something that was seriously messing Josh up, and Tyler decided then and there, that he wasn’t just going to watch from aside. Josh deserved to be happy.

He took a deep breath to calm himself and knocked on the door, ”Josh, please open the door.”

There was no answer and Tyler knocked again, a little louder this time, ”Josh, I know you’re hurting. And I really hate seeing you like this. Please, let me help you.”

The door flew open, almost hitting Tyler right in the face did he not jump back just in time. 

Josh looked at him with a torn expression, like he couldn’t decide if he could trust Tyler or not, and his eyes were watering up slightly. Tyler felt his heart clench at the sight of him.

”Can’t you just leave me alone?” Josh almost whispered, but Tyler heard it loud and clear. He always heard Josh.

Damn Jenna and her need to remind Tyler of how she thinks they’d be a cute couple. It was making Tyler sappy.

”No, I really can’t. I can’t go through every day knowing you’re hurting and just let it go.”

Josh gave him a look and Tyler knew he didn’t believe him, so he kept talking. ”I told you. I want us to be friends again. I would do the same for any of my friends. I care about you, Josh.”

After a silent minute of Josh studying Tyler’s face, he gave a small nod and turned around, leaving the door open so Tyler could come in.

Tyler closed the door behind them and followed Josh to his desk, pulling a chair to sit opposite from him. ”So, it’s Sean?”

Josh swallowed thickly and just nodded again. Tyler didn’t push him into speaking, it seemed like he was already struggling enough.

”He… He hits you, doesn’t he?”

Tyler could tell Josh was trying hard bot to cry when he gave another nod, his eyes brimming with tears.

Tyler opened his mouth to speak again, but Josh beat him to it.

”And um, last night he… I-I didn’t want to, but he-” and then he broke down to a sob, his hands flying up to his face to shield it from Tyler’s eyes.

Tyler’s blood ran cold. ”Josh, what did he do?”

Josh kept sobbing, muttering something Tyler thought sounded like, ”It was my fault, Sean didn’t do anything wrong.”

”He hit you, Josh, clearly he did something wrong already!” Tyler was getting angry and that wasn’t good. He just hoped Josh wasn’t about to tell him what Tyler thought he would. ”Please, tell me what happened?”

Josh sobbed again, a sound so broken Tyler felt his heart ache again. This man was going to be the death of him.

”He forced me t-to, you know, s-sex,” Josh whispered, hands still covering his face, and Tyler wanted to scream. Or punch something.

It was not right. Had Josh ever done anything wrong to anyone? Not to Tyler's knowledge. And how did he get treated, apparently through his whole life? Like complete shit. It just wasn’t right.

Josh finally peeked at Tyler through his fingers because of the lack of answer, and apparently he looked just as angry as he felt, because Josh hurriedly cried out, ”It’s really not his fault, Tyler! I just- I don’t appreciate him enough for everything he's done for me and I owe him that.”

Tyler felt sick. Did Josh actually, honestly, think that?

”Josh, you don’t owe him anything. You’re dating him, which should mean you’re equal. He has no right to force you into anything, nor does he have any right to hurt you in any way. You have to understand that.”

Josh’s sobbing had stopped, and now he was just sniffling and occasionally wiping at his eyes, ”But he loves me, Ty. He really does. He just gets tired of me sometimes. I understand that.”

”First of all, I don’t see why’d he get tired of you. Second of all, even if he does, he still shouldn’t hit you or do anything to hurt you. That’s not healthy.”

Josh thought about it for a moment, and then said, ”But there’s really nothing I can do about it.”

”What do you mean? You do realize that you should probably brake up with him, right?” Tyler was becoming more and more honest, but Josh didn’t seem to mind.

He sighed and ran a hand through his fading blue hair, he looked so defeated.

”I don’t think I can do that. I love him, Tyler. I need him. I was so messed up when we met and he helped me through a lot. And he’s pretty much the only person I have left.”

”You have us, Josh. Me, Jenna, Patrick… All of us really like you.”

”No offense, Tyler, but it’s really not the same thing. I’ve known you all for like, a month. I can’t do that to Sean. Please, please understand that,” Josh gave Tyler the most pleading look he had ever seen. It even beat Andy's puppy eyes, and that was saying something. Tyler sighed.

Josh had a point, and Tyler knew it was no use trying to force him into breaking up with Sean.

His throat burned with words left unsaid as he nodded, trying a different approach. He didn’t want Josh to go back home tonight, at least. It seemed unsafe.

”At least spend the weekend with us?” Josh opened his mouth to protest, but Tyler didn’t let him. ”I just think you should take some time away from him, you know? Take a day to get to know all of us better and vice versa. It could clear your head too.”

”Sean won’t let me go,” Josh admitted, an ashamed blush covering his cheeks. Tyler just wanted to hug him and tell him everything would be fine.

Okay, not weird at all.

”Josh, you’re an adult and you can make your own decisions. You shouldn't let him control your whole life, okay?”

Josh actually thought about it and then nodded, more to himself than Tyler. ”I quess I could go.”

Tyler gave him the brightest of smiles he was able to pull, Josh shyly returning it.

”But could you… Can you stay with me? I mean, when I call to tell Sean about it? I don’t know if I can-”

Tyler stood up and walk around the table over to Josh and without a second thought pulled him up and wrapped his arms around him, hugging him tightly.

There was a voice in the back of Tyler’s head telling him he was getting way too friendly way too fast, but he really couldn’t help it. ”Of course. Please believe me when I say that I really just want you to be safe and happy.”

It was the truth, and soon Josh’s body was relaxing against his, arms wrapping around Tyler, too.

He placed his head into the crook of Tyler’s neck and breathed out, ”Thank you, Tyler.”

Tyler smiled, tightening his arms around him slightly. ”Everything will be okay.”

He was sure they could fix this.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not really sure how to feel about this chapter, but here it is anyway! I kept changing things and now it confuses me so much.
> 
> All your comments and kudos keep me inspired, thank you so much!
> 
> (Also can we just give a moment to TØP x MM I love it so much)
> 
> Enjoy!

Immediately after their classes were done with, Josh was sitting next to Tyler in the other man’s car on their way to somewhere Josh couldn’t really be conserned enough to care about. He had been paying no attention whatsoever when the group had been talking about details earlier in the day.

Tyler was talking with Jenna and Brendon who were sitting in the backseat, but Josh couldn’t tell what their conversation was about. He was too distracted.

The call to Sean had gone pretty much as well as Josh had thought it would. Sean had yelled, cursed and called him names, but Tyler had been there, holding his hand thigtly.

Honestly it was kind of weird holding Tyler’s hand like that. It was weird, but at the same time it made him feel safe and familiar. They used to hold hands a lot back when they were kids.

”Joooosh my boy, why are you blushing?” Brendon’s amused voice caught his attention.

”What?”

”You’re blushing like crazy. What’s up?” the dark haired man giggled and Josh rolled his eyes, trying to play it cool.

”It’s just a little hot in here is all. It’s nothing.”

Brendon hummed in a way that let Josh know he didn’t believe for a second. Josh glanced at Tyler and Jenna only to see the two were holding in their laughter as well.

”Seriously! Just forget about it,” he muttered, feeling his cheeks heat up even more.

Jenna laughed from her seat behind Josh and reached to pat him on the shoulder, ”We believe you Josh. Don’t mind Brendon.”

Josh rolled his eyes again but he was laughing now, too. It was nice how easily he was able to relax around these people. Especially now that he had been able to share some of his problems with Tyler and their friendship was getting better again. It had been a while since he had been able to really talk to anyone that wasn't Sean.

 

-

 

The drive took about two hours, and during that time the four of them talked about whatever (Tyler kept complaining about Josh and Jenna teaming up against him) and singing along to random songs on the radio.

Josh already felt like this would be the best weekend in a long, long time.

When they arrived at their hotel they waited for the other four for about ten minutes and then went to check in.

They had two rooms, but for the time being they decided to just leave their stuff in one room and head out to get something to eat.

”Any good places in mind?” Patrick asked them as they left the hotel.

”Me and Andy went to this one nice restaurant on our vacation here once. It wasn’t too expensive either.” Everybody approved and let Joe lead the way.

Josh was walking in the very back of the group with Tyler and softly nudged him in the side, ”Are Andy and Joe together or just really good friends? I mean, they’ve went on vacations together?”

Tyler laughed loudly, startling Josh and getting everybody’s attention. ”Joe, Andy! You never told Josh that you’re dating! Please tell me at least Pete and Patrick told you.”

”Well sorry, we haven’t really had the time to get to know each other that much yet,” Joe complained. Josh was getting a feeling that he complained a lot and the rest of the group liked to poke fun at him for it.

”We told you like, during your first week here, right? When we walked home together that one night,” Pete asked Josh after rolling his eyes at Joe’s protests.

”Yeah, you did,” Josh smiled. He then turned his attention to Jenna and Brendon, feeling comfortable enough to ask, ”What about you guys? I reckon you’re not dating each other, right?”

Brendon let out a sound that was a mix between choking and laughing and slowed down so he could throw an arm around Josh’s shoulder.

”Oh Josh, we are probably the gayest group of people you will ever meet, so no. Me and Jenna are definitely not dating,” he laughed.  
”What Brendon means, is that we’re all into men,” Jenna corrected, laughing at the idea of dating Brendon.

Josh nodded in understanding, and let the thought sink in. They all liked men? As in, even Tyler? He glanced carefully at the dark haired man who was now talking with Andy.

He really wanted to ask Tyler about it, but that would be way too awkward.

Josh was having a hard time believing it. Sure, he wasn’t mad at Tyler anymore, but it was weird to think that the same person that had caused him to have some serious issues with his sexuality back in the day, was bi or gay himself.

He shook his head to rid the thoughts. It wasn’t important, and Josh felt bad for still blaming Tyler for his own problems. They were fine now, he should be happy.

 

-

 

They arrived at the restaurant soon after, and spent a good few hours eating and drinking there.

”Jesus christ I’m so full,” Brendon moaned when they finally left, deciding to find a nice bar where they could hang out. Patrick also insisted on going to somewhere with karaoke.

”Whenever we go into a karaoke bar, Patrick and Pete end up singing gross lovey-dovey duets.” Joe told Josh, rolling his eyes yet again. They had just found a nice looking place and the said couple had practically ran inside, Patrick dragging Pete behind him.

”Oh shut up Joe, they’re cute,” Andy laughed softly, leading them all inside and into an empty table that had enough seats for all of them.

The night went on nicely, and about an hour into entering the bar, Josh found himself sitting alone at their table. Everyone else had disappeared wherever. Patrick and Pete sang a lot (Josh himself could never sing something as cliché as they did, but he had to admit it was kind of cute) and Josh was actually enjoying just watching them do their thing. Also he had to admit the two were absolutely amazing singers, so that wasn’t a problem. It had been too long since the last time he had been out with friends like this.

”They aren’t your friends. They don’t need you,” a small voice in his head whispered, but he decided to push the thought away. The whole point of this trip was to clear his head anyway.

Josh was pulled out of his thoughts when Tyler sat down next to him, handing him a beer. Josh nodded him thanks.

”What’s on your mind?” Tyler asked and took a sip of his own beer. It had to be his second one, Josh thought. What with the fact that the other man really couldn’t drink much. Josh had already lost track of his own drinking, with the others offering him beer as ’welcome to the family’-drinks, as Jenna had it so kindly explained.

”Nothing really, just wondering how those two are able to do that stuff without looking like complete idiots,” Josh answered him, motioning to Patrick and Pete who were singing Love story by Taylor Swift like there was no tomorrow.

Tyler laughed and shook his head, ”It’s beyond me, honestly. Somehow they just pull it off.”

The two of them sat in comfortable silence for a while, just watching the others’ performance and cheering loudly once they finished.

Josh finished the beer Tyler had brought him. He was drinking way too fast for his own good, but then again he didn’t really care. It was nice to let all the tension leave his body for once.

”Are you okay?” Tyler asked, having noticed how fast Josh was downing his drinks. It took Josh’s brain a minute to get what he meant.

”You mean the Sean thing?” he asked, one hand automatically going to run through his hair. It was so faded by now Josh figured it couldn’t even be called blue anymore.

Tyler nodded, frowning a little and Josh sighed. ”I’m fine, just… Don’t really wanna talk about it right now.”

The younger man opened his mouth to respond, but the rest of their group decided to re-join them at that very moment. Jenna carrying a tray full of shots of tequila.

”Alright then, everybody drink!” she giggled, clearly pretty drunk already, and glanced around the table. ”Actually everybody except for Tyler and Pete, since you’re driving tomorrow.

Josh hesitated for a minute, the last time he had drank shots with Brendon still clear in his mind. It usually led to some seriously bad decisions such as calling your ex-best friend and making a fool out of yourself.

Still, when others took a shot each, he just shrugged it off and did the same thing, downing the shot without the salt or lemon that were also on the tray.

The night went on like that. Shots just kept appearing (or so it seemed to Josh at least) and before he knew it, he barely could walk without stumbling every other step. And when he reached over to take yet another shot, there was a hand on his arm, pulling him back.

”I think that’s enough, Josh,” Tyler said, laughter evident in his voice.

Josh pouted and gave Tyler the best pleading look his drunk mind could pull off, ”You can’t tell me what to do, you’re not my mom!”

Jenna and Brendon who were sitting opposite of them laughed at them, while Tyler rolled his eyes, smile still on his face. The two couples had disappeared again, and Brendon had been certain they were "fucking in the filthy bathroom stalls like rabbits". Jenna had then kicked him hard under the table, saying she didn’t want hear that, and that had been it. Bless her soul.

”Come on you big baby, we should get you back to the hotel,” Tyler said, standing up and offering his hands for Josh to take. Josh accepted the help and was pulled up, Tyler supporting him with one arm on his back when he couldn’t balance himself properly. Brendon made some sort of comment about him being such a lightweight, earning a lazy middle finger in response. But yeah, he was really going to regret those last three shots tomorrow.

”Are you coming too or?” Tyler asked Brendon and Jenna.

”Nah, we’ll stay for a little bit, see if we can find the rest and get them back too. You gonna get him back okay?” Jenna asked.

”Yeah, it’s not that far anyway.”

They said their good nights, and then Tyler led him out of the bar. It was actually kind of cold, and Josh shuddered even with his jacket on. It was no longer summer, it seemed.

They walked in silence for a short while, Josh was already starting to feel a headache coming, when he suddenly remembered something from earlier that day.

”Hey Tyler?”

”Mmh?”

”Are you gay?”

Tyler turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised at the sudden question, but answered anyway, ”Yeah, I am.”

”How long… I mean, did you know back when, you know.”

Tyler frowned then, and Josh hurried to explain, ”I’m not mad or anything, it’s just that I thought you hated me because of that, and-”

”I never hated you, Josh. I’ve told you that already. And yeah, I had a feeling all the way back then, but I was too scared to admit it." They fell silent again.

”I care about you, Josh. I really do,” Tyler said, pulling the shorter man just a tiny bit closer to himself where he was still leaning on him.

Josh looked him in the eyes. It was kind of hard to consentrate in the fairly dark night, but he believed him.

”Okay,” was all he said, leaning more onto Tyler and hoping it was enough to assure him. Josh wasn’t good with words, never had been.


End file.
